It has been a long struggle for us all. For some, it has been devastating.

For me, it started just before St. Patrick’s Day in 2020. I was supposed to get together with an old friend. Gov. Inslee shut down the restaurants and the bars the weekend before. My plans with my old friend were sidetracked. I believe that many lives were saved.

We have all endured these inconveniences, troubles, and (for many) struggles over the past year and a half. A great many of us have suffered unimaginable losses of those who we have loved.

I hope that we are near the end.

I have been watching the numbers from the Washington Department of Health, as well as the Johns Hopkins covid-19 website. If I am reading the numbers right, we are near an end. I hope that I am right.

Gov. Inslee has been listening to epidemiologists so that we in Snohomish County haven’t faced the overwhelming hospital crisis that faced New York City in the spring of 2020, and he lifted restrictions as promised this summer. Dr. Christopher Spitters, the county health officer, has given wise recommendations throughout this crisis, such as urging us to mask up again during this current surge. I have listened to both because they both have given consistently reliable advice on how to keep our hospitals from being overwhelmed.

I look forward to the moment when they both announce that we can rip off our masks and burn them because the pandemic is over.

Soon?

Steve Humphrey

Lynnwood